Naming Children

[pinefamily]

When our son was born, I tried very hard to convince my wife that he should be Thomas Dowdeswell Pine, which would have made him TD Pine the 4th; very grand sounding. She wouldn't have a bar of it, so he ended up Thomas Oliver instead.
Now he's older, he often stirs her up by saying he wanyed to be TD Pine the 4th!

[Tariana]

I have some more recent examples, although these aren't children named after deceased siblings.

My great-grandmother wasn't very creative when it came to naming three of her sons:
John Bill
William Floyd
Glenn Boyd
They all lived to rip old ages and none of them were twins.

Another great-grandmother, among her several children had two sons:
James Larry, who went by Larry and
James Edward, who went by (or goes by) Bob.
I have no idea why both are named James, or how in the world they got "Bob" out of James Edward.

My (half) sister and I have the same middle name, but that's because we have the same father (with the male version of the name) and our mothers named us. I think it's kind of neat, but we weren't raised together, so it's a bit different for us.

My father's side seems to be obsessed with my grandpa's name, Thomas.
We have:
my uncle: Thomas Joseph
My aunts sons: Alexander Thomas and Ryan Thomas
My little brother: Thomas Charles
My grandfather was named after his father Thomas S, and he his and he his father Thomas J, and he his.
I think it's safe to say that if I ever have a son, his name won't be Thomas. Enough is enough. 

[Rabbit B]

Hi Tariana,
Welcome to Rootschat, I felt the same as you do, re the naming of children.

So when my son was born I refused to use any family names for him at all. The same thing with my daughter, despite family pressure.

Then I started my research. Guess what! I have turned up all their names, in the family tree, so there is nothing new under the sun after all

Rabbit B 
 

[dobfarm]

In those days they had little imagination at picking sibling first names, more with the first few sibling names after a family member of the past maybe, and as had large families maybe one reason they kept to the same name

[coombs]

Quite often I have found the eldest daughter and eldest son named after the fathers or mothers parents. Ie eldest son named after the fathers father and eldest daughter after the mothers mother etc. Especially 1700s and 1800s.

I have an ancestor who had two children Edwin Auber in 1840 and Edwin Gore Auber in 1843. Both lived to adulthood.

My 2xgreat grandmother Mary Ann Kate had a sister Maria. Almost the same firstname.

[lizdb]

I think the whole approach to name choosing has changed over the years.
It was the normal to name a child after its parents, or grandparents. People would be thought unusual if they came up with a name that wasnt already in the family.
I guess some people took this trend to more of an extreme than others - in the same way as the trend these days to think of something more unusual or unique can be taken to various degrees!
Many of the nicknames and shortened names (that these days are often given as a name in its own right) came about because so many people within a family had the same name. If you have three or many four generations of Benjamin Bloggs in the same village, or often the same house, one will become Ben and one Benjy etc just to distinguish. Thus some John's became Jacks, Henrys HArry, and ELizabeths Betty or ELiza etc etc. 
So when I wonder why someone called John Henry in my tree is often reffered to as Henry, I only have to look and see that he was brought up by his Uncle John, who already had a son John, so he was the third John is the household, and therefore that is probably why he often used the name Henry, I guess he was called it at home to avoid confusion!
It is all very interesting!

[chinakay]

The Guy Who Wrote The Book, Mark Herber (he wrote Ancestral Trails) tells of a family in his own tree who was so determined to have a son named James, in the days of such awful infant mortality, that they named five successive boys James.

However, every one of them survived infancy, childhood and adolescence, and went on to marry and have children of their own. He had the devil's own time sorting them and their progeny out

Cheers,
China

[coombs]

At times name patterns can be a tool in helping go back further on family lines.

[Duodecem]

It's a very useful tool -especially when the names are unusual -less so when you have generations of Johns and Marys marrying Marys and Johns. 
I agree with Lizdb that it was customary to name a child after a parent or grandparent- I suppose that was particularly important when lives -even for those who survived into adulthood- were short.  The living children were a memorial to their dead grandparents or even parents.
On a lighter note, my mother's name Rosamond was chosen by my grandfather so that the initials of the family spelled DEAR. My practical Grandmother preferred Margaret, so Mother's given name was never used, she was always Peg!
We were never tempted to spell out anything, starting out with a J and a B didn't offer much scope -JOBS---, JABS----JIBS ??